e Old and the T^elp 



An Address 6t\irtxt^ by the HON. 

Joseph Very Quarles, U. S. Sen- 
ator from Wisconsin, at the Fifty-ninth 
Annual Ccmmenccment of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, June 18, 1903^ 



The Old and the New 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVKRED AT 



The Fifty-ninth Annual Commencement of 
the University of Michigan 



V » « • 



THURSDAY, JUNE i8, 1903 



By the HON. JOSEPH VERY QUARLES 

United States Senator from Wisconsin 



Author. 



%■< 






The Old and the New 



ADDRESS DEI^IVERED AT THE FIFTY-NINTH ANNUAI. COMMENCEMENT, BY THE HON. 

JOSEPH VERY QUARI^ES 



MR. PRESIDENT, Gentlemen of 
the Faculty, Members of the 
Graduating Classes, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : — 

Your cordial reception touches me 
deeply. The occasion is one that 
awakens emotions that I can neither 
control nor suitably express. It re- 
calls another greeting here, — less de- 
monstrative, but not less welcome, 
— that was extended to a poor boy 
forty years ago, who with fear and 
trembling sought the kind offices 
of this tender foster-mother. An 
unexpected sensation of mingled 
pleasure and pain well nigh over- 
comes me. Standing here in this 
modem, spacious temple, reminded on 
every hand of the growth and gran- 
deur of the present institution, sur- 
rounded by a multitude of strange 
faces, the University of the long ago, 
though young and feeble, irresistibly 
rises before my mind. I see other 
student assemblies, other faces more 
familiar that once were bright with 
hope and joy. Their voices in glad 
shouts and college songs echo through 
the deserted halls of memory. The 
old faculty are before me now, faith- 
ful, earnest, kindly men. At their 
head stands Tappan, — the masterful 
man. He has a fit memorial on your 
campus, — a majestic oak that bears 
his name . His eloquent voice , teaching 
high ideals and noble aspirations, still 
thrills the bosoms of gray -haired men 
who were mere boys when the words 
were spoken. And now they are 
gone, all gone. But I am persuaded 
that their sweet spirits still visit this 
place to sanctify the spot, where with 
rarest self-sacrifice, they wore away 
their precious lives. 

Their bones are dust. 

Their swords are rust, 

Their souls are with the saints, I trust. 



Now, after a long and toilsome 
journey through the highways of life, 
I am again summoned by the same 
kind mother. She extends a hand 
which I passionately press to my lips. 
But why tarry longer with the shades? 
Words are as inadequate to tell of the 
enchantment of those early years as to 
describe the weird melody of the lost 
chord. Let us therefore proceed to 
the duty of the day. 

My young friends, the hour has 
struck for which you have been eager- 
ly waiting for years. I can appreciate 
the keen anxiety you feel to know 
something of the world injto which 
you are going. I have come from 
that busy world to bring you a message, 
a greeting and a warning. If you don ' t 
object, let's have the warning first. A 
graduate is not a finished product. 
The student who frames his diploma as 
evidence of a fait accompli, is like the 
man in Arkansas who nailed up the 
Lord's Prayer at the foot of the bed to 
facilitate his drowsy devotion. Gradu - 
ation is a second birth, — not the same 
that puzzled Nicodemus, — but, phras- 
ed in homely terms, the graduate is 
dumped into the world again, some- 
what larger, but every whit as help- 
less as when he made his first appear- 
ance. I commend to you all the famil- 
iar maxim of Socrates, that the first 
step toward wisdom is a confession of 
ignorance. Vain conceit will not long 
withstand the searching tests of busi- 
ness. You will promote your com- 
fort and progress if able to discard it 
in advance. 

The world has no use for a man 
perched on a pedestal. Sooner or 
later he must either climb down, or 
fall down. He must get his feet 
braced against the earth before he will 
be recognized as a unit of force. The 
first thing you have to do is to forget 



The Old and the New 



the formulae that you have been at 
such pains to acquire. The mental 
grasp, the scholarly taste, will sur- 
vive the athletic processes which you 
now discard. 

You should not enter the field 
until you have surveyed it carefully. 
The present can be clearly distin- 
guished only by the light of the past. 
In the first place, you should thank 
God for your ancestors, not only for 
the noble tendencies that course 
through your veins with the red drops, 
but because of the Titanic labor they 
performed, the hardship they cheer- 
fully endured in your behalf. You 
are familiar with the great battles that 
they fought. You know that their 
blood and tears cemented every stone 
in the majestic temple of popular 
government. But you have slight 
conception of the mighty forests which 
they laid low, the natural obstacles 
they overcame, as they slowly pushed 
the frontier back toward the setting 
sun . Every church and school - house 
and chimney stack is a monument to 
their energy and foresight. They 
built highways and harbors, railroads 
and telegraphs. They made consti- 
tutions and expounded them. They 
devised the best type of popular gov- 
ernment the world has ever seen. 

Behind you are two mighty cen- 
turies which will be known in history 
as the heroic period of the republic, — 
the age of iron and muscle, the era 
of the sword and the axe. Dumas has 
said that "centuries are the days of 
nations." The magnitude of the re- 
sults, and the brevity of the period 
would suggest an age of miracles, were 
not the exceptional energy and ability 
of your ancestors well understood. 

Your obligation is not confined to 
these two recent centuries. We must 
not repudiate the debt to primitive 
periods that witnessed valiant struggles 
in the thorny path of progress. Civili- 
zation has not proceeded steadily, or 
along straight lines. From time to 
time it has blazed up and illumined 
the sky, only to be smothered by bar- 



barism and apparently extinguished 
forever. It is natural that ancient 
lights should grow dim under the 
bright effulgence of this day. Besides 
it ministers to our pride and national 
conceit to make extravagant claims 
for American primacy in science and 
art; to indulge a kind of Fourth of 
July spirit of self -complacency, ignor- 
ing the patient e:fforts, the weary toil, 
the alternate failures and successes 
which alone made possible the condi- 
tions upon which we congratulate our- 
selves to-day. 

Scattered along the shores of time 
are derelicts and wreckage that indi- 
cate high accomplishment in learn- 
ing, literature, and science, lofty 
thought and high ideals. In many 
instances, this was the work of peo- 
ples whose history is either buried 
with them or obscured by blend with 
fable and tradition; but their influ- 
ence, as insensible as the light of the 
distant star, still abides with us. 
Some one has said, you know, that 
' 'without the light of the fixed stars no 
crop would ripen." Remote periods 
have made important contribution to 
our stock of learning without any suit- 
able acknowledgment. We should 
think more of our debts and less of our 
achievements, and sometime insist 
upon an honest balance sheet with 
antiquity to see how the account 
stands. Such a showing would dem- 
onstrate that we are chronic borrow- 
ers, drawing heavily upon ancient 
sources. It is often difiicult to dis- 
tinguish the new from the old. 

You read in your New Testament 
of certain Athenian citizens who were 
ever seeking new things. A similar 
tendency is sometimes imputed to the 
women of this day, perhaps unjustly. 
The preacher of the Old Testament 
declared: — 

There is no new thing under the sun. Is 
there anything whereof it may be said, 
See this is new? It hath been already 
of old time, which was before us. There 
is no remembrance of former things. 

There is much pith and wisdorm in 



The Old and the New 



this old text. What we call new to- 
day, is likely to be something that 
has been foro:otten. It is said that an 
English duchess attended a ball at the 
Tuileries when the French court was 
yet magnificent. She wore a string of 
beads taken from the neck of a 
mummy. It was the universal opinion 
that her necklace was the newest 
thing at the ball. 

A few months since, a new^ surgical 
instrument was invented which prom- 
ised to be useful. Shortly thereafter 
a similar instrument was exhumed 
from the ruins of the ancient city of 
Nippur. We are under obligations to 
the inventor, because otherwise we 
should have been at a loss to classify 
the old trophy. 

Our stories and jokes are for the 
most part venerable friends that have 
done ser\4ce in different languages. 
They have beguiled weary hours for 
merry groups in camp and court, in 
many climes. Most of them are older 
than the mummies, — ancient chest- 
nuts that seem to be endowed with 
immortality. x\dam told some of 
them to the snake when they first 
met. Our friend, Chauncey Depew, 
tells a funny storj- at the Gridiron 
Club. By prearrangement nobody 
laughs except the genial Chauncey. 
Then comes a chant from the Club, 
lu the days of old Rameses, 
That story had paresis. 

Having heard many of Chauncey 's 
jokes, I should be inclined to agree 
with the Club, if the dignity of the 
Senate were not involved. 

Wendell Phillips has demonstrated 
in his lecture on lost arts that the an- 
cients were as expert in making puns 
as in making glass, and that our 
familiar "Irish bulls" are all Greek. 
Many of our epigrams and aphorisms 
came from the Orient, and if we may 
trust the writings of Rawlinson, our 
games and toys ma\^be traced back to 
the banks of the Ganges. The "Beast 
fables" of India were edited and com- 
piled by ^sop. I stumbled on to an 
ancient book in London whence De 



Foe got the story of Robinson Crusoe 
that made him famous. Shakespeare 
was a desperate borrower. He seized 
bodily upon certain Italian romances, 
and never took the trouble to change 
the names of the characters. But he 
tinged them with the glory of his 
genius and made them his own forever. 

Some one has said of phrenology, 
"Whatever there is in it that is new 
is not true, and whatever is true is not 
new." The same criticism might be 
made of many modern inventions. 
Recent discoveries prove that the 
faith cure was understood and prac- 
ticed by the Romans twenty -six cen- 
turies ago. 

But, you say, our electric light is 
certainly new. No, m.y friends, the 
manifestation is new, but electric light 
is only sunshine warmed over. This 
same bright light flooded- the earth 
with tropical glory when the monsters 
of the saurian race held sway in sw^amp 
and fen. It glinted on the leaves and 
entered the fibre of gigantic tree-ferns 
of the carboniferous age, when early 
preparations were being made for the 
comfort of man. Electric light is a 
resurrection. After centuries, these 
rays escape from their dark prison- 
house to illumine the pathway of 
progress according to the divine plan 
that is older than creation. 

Here is a crisp, fresh bond just 
issued from the United States treasury. 
Is not this new? New only in form. 
The paper is new, but what it repre- 
sents is not new. Mere inert matter 
is not wealth. Labor is the magician 
that imparts to it actual value. Capi- 
tal is mostl}^ labor long since expend- 
ed and crystallized into permanent 
shape for conservation and conven- 
ience, just as sunshine is perpetuated 
in the form of carbon. When labor 
attacks capital, it strikes its own dead 
hand. What wonder that, in such a 
contest, it is the living hand that is 
bruised. 

There are many who would be sur- 
prised to know that the "trust ques- 
tion" is not of modern origin. In one 



The Old and the New 



form or another it has vexed society 
since trade and commerce began. 
Through the centuries there has been 
an eternal antagonism between two 
economic forces, — competition and 
combination. The struggle suggests 
the irrepressible conflict, yet strange- 
ly enough, these forces are so correlated 
that each stimulates the other. When - 
ever competition forces prices down so 
as to destroy profits, combination comes 
to the rescue by cheapening produc- 
tion. When, under the stimulus of 
combination, profits become exces- 
sive, keen -eyed competition is ready 
with fresh capital and new men to 
duplicate facilities to increase and im - 
prove production. Thus, in the na- 
tural order, each should be the effec- 
tive antidote of the other. Frequently, 
however, it has happened that the 
state has felt obliged to reinforce 
competition. 

In the year of our I^ord, 483, the 
Emperor Zeno issued an edict against 
monopolies in food and clothing 
whereby forfeiture of property and 
perpetual exile were imposed as the 
penalty. Even in Solomon's time 
monopoly in food products was forbid- 
den, and the king of Israel said, ''He 
that withholdeth corn, the people 
shall curse him." In this connec- 
tion it may be remembered that Pha- 
raoh ran a successful corner on corn 
and had all the ''shorts" of his day 
at his mercy. 

Germany had the trust question in 
an acute stage in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. Merchants were uniting to 
stifle competition and the government 
felt called upon to intervene, accord- 
ing to the arbitrary methods of that 
day, to check combinations. The 
same battle between these two forces 
is still going on, with varied results. 
Recently the fifty -seventh Congress 
was asked to do practically what the 
German government did at that early 
day, except that, instead of employ- 
ing the mailed fist of absolute power 
to curb monopoly, resort was had to 
legal and constitutional measures. 



Thus history repeats itself, assuming 
ever the guise of something new. 

The pessimist who is now wailing 
about trusts and other degenerate 
tendencies, assailing the honor of 
men and the virtue of women, is not a 
new creation. Some of you have tnade 
the acquaintance of Thersites, a bit- 
ter pessimist, who kept the Greek 
army in perpetual turmoil by his sour 
complaints. You remember that 
Odysseus administered to him a whole - 
some castigation with satisfactory 
results. Such men re -appear in every 
period. 

Sydney Smith, speaking to his 
friend Jeffrey, once said, "Damn the 
solar system; bad light; planets too 
distant; pestered with comets; a fee- 
ble contrivance ; could make a better 
with ease." 

Mr. Tooke in his book on "The 
History of Prices" thus assails the 
Bank of England : "The Bank of Eng- 
land is one of the most wanton, ill- 
advised, pedantic, and rash pieces of 
legislation that has ever come within 
my observation." 

Victor Hugo anticipated and char- 
acterized the whole tribe of pessimists 
when he made Grantaire ridicule the 
scheme of creation, denouncing it as 
a series of mistakes. For instance, 
God created a rat. He had no sooner 
let him go than he said. Hello! that's 
a blunder. The rat will be a nuis- 
ance. So repenting himself, God 
straightway created a cat to chase the 
rat through the world in the vain 
effort to retrieve the blunder. Victor 
Hugo also spoke of a toad that not 
being able to fly himself spat at every 
bird that passed by. There are still 
some cheerful toads left over from 
the old times. 

The civil code of I^ouisiana was 
something new when it was adopted 
because the states had generally fol- 
lowed the common law of England. 
But the lyouisiana code was essentially 
the advance sheets of the Code Napo- 
leon. Did Napoleon and his wise men 
develop a new system? The claim was 



The Old and the New 



made that Napoleon would live as a 
law -giver after the glory of Austerlitz 
had been forgotten. The fact is 
that, as to the great body of the civil 
law, they were only compilers of a 
system that had been many times com- 
piled before. What Napoleon did as 
a compiler, in the early days of 
the nineteenth century, the Emperor 
Justinian did in the sixth century. 
There is also a popular notion 
that the civil code originated with 
Justinian, who is known in his- 
tory as the great law -giver. But long 
before Justinian, the Twelve Tables 
had constituted the basis of the Roman 
law and had been inscribed, first on 
wood and then on brass. Justinian 
undertook to gather up and compile 
in one authentic, exclusive collection 
all the ancient law and the commen- 
taries of the early jurists thereon, and 
prohibited any reference thereafter to 
the former sources of law. Centuries 
before Justinian, and before the Twelve 
Tables, this system of law had been in 
existence. The Romans had bor- 
rowed it from the Greeks, and the 
Greeks from the Egyptians. It may 
even be traced back to India long 
before Egypt became the school- 
mistress of the world. 

The Institutes of Menou, a copy of 
which I have, were written in the early 
Sanscrit, and contain many of the 
precepts of the civil code although 
intermingled with the ceremonials of 
caste and superstitious rites. Nobody 
knows when this compilation was 
promulgated. It follows the Vedas 
whose antiquity dates back from 
fifteen to twenty centuries before 
Christ. Strange as it may seem, not- 
withstanding all the mutations of 
time and manners and government, 
many of the texts of Menou are liter- 
ally and identically reproduced in the 
Pandects of Justinian and the Code 
Napoleon, and are announced as the 
law to-day by our own courts in 
almost the same phraseology in which 
they were embalmed in original Sans- 
crit. By the aid of literal translations 



I have laid many of these texts side by 
side for careful analysis and there can 
be no doubt of their identity. They 
are gems of truth that have survived 
the wreck of empires, the decay of 
dynasties, and the gloom of the Dark 
Ages. They are the essence of human 
wisdom, whether expressed in Sans- 
crit, Greek, I^atin, or French. They 
are the same on the Ganges, the 
Tiber, and the Mississippi, — change- 
less through the eternal years. 

Thus Louisiana, to find a new code, 
traveled back to France, and Rome, 
and Greece, and Egypt. She even 
threaded her way back to the far East, 
— following the blind, winding trail 
through battle-scarred India, over 
ashes and blood, through poverty and 
degradation, — back to that hoary 
source of learning where many cen- 
turies before Christ, broke tlie dawn 
of intellectual development, — back to 
a people whose history and institu- 
tions have been buried for centuries in 
a nameless tomb. 

The literature of every modern 
nation has been enriched by the 
aphorisms and epigrams of that early 
period, Pythagoras went to India 
to study mathematics and philosophy. 
Through Aristotle, Bacon, Kant, and 
Spinoza, modern students have been 
put in touch with this early source of 
wisdom. I think it was Cousin who 
said that the philosophy of India was 
an abridgment of the philosophy of 
the world. Every learned cult has 
drunk at this same spring, and to-day 
in this new Republic, thriving in a 
new land especially set apart for its 
development, our literature, our law, 
and science, are reflecting the faint 
rays of that early sunrise. Forms and 
ceremonials often change, but essen- 
tial truths are never new, and never 
old. 

In order to give an idea of the 
lofty thought and literary style of 
these ancient books, perhaps you will 
permit me to read a single text from 
the Institutes of Menou, and a short 



The Old and the New 



invocation, which may be found in 
one of the Vedas : — 

TKXT FROM MENOU 

As the most obscure soldier of an army 
may, sometimes, by a fiery arrow, destroy 
the strongest fortress of the enemy, so may 
the weakest man, when he makes himself 
the courageous champion of truth, over- 
throw the most solid ramparts of supersti- 
tion and error. 

INVOCATION 

Lord of the world and of all creatures, 
receive my humble invocation. Turn from 
the contemplation of Thy immortal power. 
Thy single glance shall purify my soul. 
Come to me, that I may hear Thy voice in 
the fluttering of the leaves, in the murmur- 
ing waters of the sacred river, in the 
sparkling flame of the consecrated fire. 

My soul longs to breathe the air that 
emanates from the Great Soul. Thy word 
shall be sweeter to my thirsty soul than the 
tears of night to the sandy desert. Sweeter 
than the voice of the young mother who 
caresses her infant. Come tome, O Thou, 
by whom the earth blooms into flowers, by 
whom harvests ripen, by whom all germs 
develop themselves, by whom sages learn 
virtue. My soul thirsteth to know Thee 
and to escape from its mortal envelope to 
the enjoyment of celestial bliss, absorbed in 
Thy splendor. 

There is nothing further from my 
purpose than to convey the impression 
that the world is growing stale. The 
grand procession of progress is mov- 
ing steadily. The centuries fit one 
against another like stones in the finest 
mosaic. The early triumphs of in- 
vention and art do not teach indol- 
ence. They rather bring a suggestion 
of life and energy and hope. By way 
of corroboration, permit me now to 
speak of one modern impulse that is 
new in essence and manifestation. 

After untold centuries of envy, 
strife, and bloodshed, the nations of 
the earth are being reconciled like 
members of an estranged family. The 
humanizing influence of civilization 
has touched their eyes and behold, 
they are not enemies but brothers. 
Their interdependence becomes more 
manifest every year. The barriers 
of prejudice and provincialism are 
breaking down. You will see the 
day when international councils will 
be common events. At no distant 



time there will come a World's 
Congress, invested by common con- 
sent with certain legislative powers 
to conserve the broad interests of 
a world-wide civilization. Finally, 
the great nations will be drawn 
together by a holy bond of ' sym - 
pathy. Their mighty energies will 
blend as beautifully as the pris- 
matic colors, and across the heavens 
will appear, against the background of 
retiring war clouds, the great rain- 
bow, the pageant of the centuries, 
over which, inscribed in letters of 
living light, the sweet sublime ideal of 
the Great Master shall take visible 
form "On Earth Peace, Good Will 
Toward Men." 

It is a source of just pride that 
American influence has been and is 
likely to be so potent a factor in 
awakening a sense of combined re- 
sponsibility among the nations, — a 
world conscience if you please, that 
will result in broadening the jurisdic- 
tion of the yz/.y^<??2//z^;;^. Public sen- 
timent is the ruling power in the 
United States, and its trained virile 
influence is felt in every capital in 
Europe. Behind this volume of 
American sentiment are descendants 
of every European race. These are 
the strands of influence by which we 
reach back to the sympathies of the 
old world. The American spirit must 
be reckoned with in the council cham- 
ber of czar and emperor. It has elec- 
trified the torpid diplomacy of the 
Celestial empire. It furnished fibre 
for the French republic from the be- 
ginning. It has directed and sus- 
tained every attempt at popular gov- 
ernment in Mexico and South America. 
It banished Spain from the western 
hemisphere, and bundled up and sent 
back with her all the hated parapher- 
nalia of the sixteenth century. As 
the fruit of our unselfish love, the 
Cuban republic was born, whose flag, 
representing the American spirit, now 
floats over the most beautiful island 
ever dedicated to liberty. These are 
some of the agencies, ancient and 



The Old and the New 



modern, that have combined to crown 
the new centurj^ with unfading glory. 

With confidence we appeal to the 
twentieth century. It will savor 
somewhat of the Augustan age, be- 
cause of the abundance of wealth, the 
prevalence of luxury, and the patron- 
age of art. America has no use for an 
Augustus or a Maecenas or a Horace. 
They were the apostles of luxurious 
effeminacy. The twentieth century 
will be instinct with energy, but in- 
tellect, not muscle, will be the domi- 
nating force. Wealth has become too 
common to hold its place as a distinc- 
tion. Its favors have been often lav- 
ished upon cheap men and sometimes 
there has seemed to be a strange 
affinity between the fat purse and the 
lean soul. Coarse, vulgar men have 
been thrust into public notice by some 
lucky stroke of fortune. Money will 
retain its legitimate influence, but the 
primacy of the golden calf is well nigh 
over . A colossal fortune will always at - 
tract attention . So will a colossal abdo - 
men. The scholar is about to displace 
the adventurer, and science will dis- 
troy the enchantment of luck. Thought 
will be the touchstone of success, and 
success will no longer be confused 
with merit. Now all effort must be 
specialized. The all-around man of 
the frontier days has passed away. 
Science stands like a presiding genius 
over every workshop, forge, and fac- 
tory. Thought vibrates between the 
continents, disdaining the aid of wires. 
The clouds give it the right of way 
and the ocean's stormy protest is 
ignored. 

Even war has become a science. 
It is the trained brain and not brute 
muscle that deals out death on land 
and sea. Complicated electrical ma- 
chinery is installed in every fort. 
Skilled electricians are enlisted in 
every artillery corps. The modern 
battleship is a complicated machine- 
shop. This is the evolution by which 
war will become impossible among 
civilized nations and all international 
disputes eventually will be referred to 



arbitration. Arbitration is one of the 
hopeful signs of the times. Wars, 
strikes, lockouts, and boycotts all 
linger as a relict of the age of might. 
Compulsory control entails enormous 
waste of energy, while conservation of 
force is the keynote of present civili- 
zation. Furthermore, nine times out 
of ten, our serious difficulties, national 
and domestic, arise out of misunder- 
standing, and arbitration is the only 
sensible and scientific means of com- 
posing them. Therefore, let the 
scholar encourage this peaceful tribu- 
nal and extend its jurisdiction. 

Agriculture used to be esteemed a 
dull employment. The farm was the 
dumping -ground for the failures and 
cripples of every other vocation. Now 
farming is a scientific employment 
worthy of the brightest intellect. 

Already the scholar has established 
himself in politics where he is strug- 
gling for higher ideals and cleaner 
methods. His is the arduous task, 
and his will be the lasting glory to 
hasten the day when men shall be rated 
for what they are and not for what 
they have. His the lofty ambition to 
bring the best thought of the nation 
into political service, not only to ad- 
minister public office but to stand 
guard at the primaries and conven- 
tions and impart a higher tone through - 
out American politics. 

Whatever may be the ultimate in- 
fluence of trusts on society, the steady 
process of consolidation is making 
every department of business more 
complicated and superintendence more 
difficult. Commercialism is being 
raised to the dignity of a science. 
This universal tendency will increase 
the demand for trained men, for ex- 
ecutive and organizing ability. Brains 
never before commanded so high a 
premium, and the educated man never 
had so many avenues open to him 
outside the learned professions. The 
legal profession, — and I can speak of 
no other, — offers emoluments greater 
than ever before to a limited number 
who stand in the front. Those in the 



8 



The Old and the New 



rear must be satisfied with a preca- 
rious existence. The multiple petty 
g^rievances incident to a new country 
have passed away and the pettifog- 
ger's occupation is gone. The world 
needs fewer lawyers, but better ones, 
and is willing to pay accordingly. If 
you are not willing to master the law 
as a science, which means willingness 
to accept a life sentence at hard labor, 
let me warn you now not to make the 
acquaintance of Blackstone or Kent. 

There is comfort in the fact that 
intellect can never be organized into 
a trust. There can be no corner on 
brains. It is the genius of wisdom 
to increase her wealth by division 
and diffusion. ''There is that scat- 
tereth and yet increaseth." Thus 
the educated man will become not 
only independent, but indispensable. 
What possibilities are open to you ! 
Your ambition will have no lim- 
itation, save such as you yourself 
impose. You will have the peoples 
of the earth for an audience when you 
have any worthy message to deliver. 
Any triumph of invention or skill will 
make you the benefactor of the entire 
race. Fortunate, fortunate youth, 
who with the bright halo of the twen - 
tieth century about you are called to 
enter upon your life work at such an 
eventful period and under such auspi - 
cious omens. The heroic struggles 
of the centuries, all the virtue, wit, 
and wisdom of the ages, are combined 
in the prologue of the drama in which 
you are chosen to take part. 

But lest your imagination may be 
dazzled by this prospect, let me re- 
mind you with all the emphasis at my 
command, that responsibility is meas- 
ured by opportunity. Consider ser- 
iously what a heavy burden you must 
assume by a just application of this 
rule. America has many vexed and 
vital questions to settle in the near 
future which call for patience, patriot- 
ism, and statesmanship. In a serious 
crisis, such as some anticipate, society 
will expect her educated men to serve 
as her body guard, to make the weak 



strong, and the strong just, to insist 
upon the supremacy of law, to incul- 
cate patriotism, and above all to flood 
the land with the light of education. 

Let in the light! I repeat it, let in 
the light! This is the gospel of hope 
and the plan of our salvation. 

A look into your earnest faces is 
reassuring. What so noble and in- 
genuous as youth ! Unless your ap- 
pearance belies you, neither your coun- 
try, your God, nor truth will lack for 
champions while you live to reflect 
the inspiration of this great seat of 
learning. 

I am prompted to avail myself of 
the privilege, accorded to a man of my 
years, to have a 'word in confidence 
with these young women , who have had 
the ability and pluck to maintain their 
places in this graduating class. L^t 
not your imagination be fascinated by 
some supposed sequestered spot in 
the ethereal regions, where, unvexed 
by domestic cares, the gifted spinster 
keeps her lonely vigils, and gathers 
laurels in the field of science. The 
bright, cold rays of intellect will not 
stimulate benevolence or incite ten- 
derness, nor ripen the noblest graces 
of the soul. 

A drop of dew is cold and clear 
and pure while it modestly hangs in 
some shaded spot. But let it be touched 
by a ray of sunshine and it flashes 
like a diamond in the tiara of the 
blushing dawn. The highest develop- 
ment of womanhood may be expected 
in the warm currents of human sym- 
pathy and affection. Here she attains 
symmetrical growth. Here her intel- 
ligent activity may prove the greatest 
boon and blessing to the race. The 
present sphere of women is the whole 
world. Her horizon is no longer 
bounded by kitchen walls. Her in- 
fluence permeates business, g^ves di- 
rection to politics, tinges our literature, 
and is a dominating force in our civili- 
zation. 

Let not learning incite rebellion in 
your hearts against conditions which 
are more favorable to woman than 



The Old and the New 



ever obtained before. Aspire to be a 
part of, rather than to stay apart from, 
the active life of the busy world. Let 
your accomplishments adorn the com- 
mon walks of life, and thus follow in 
the lead of the divine intelligence, 
that once graced the highways and 
byways of the world. 

Now my young friends, your col- 
lege life is over. Henceforth it will 
be as a tale that is told. It will be an 
oasis to whose green verdure and 
cooling springs the dust}^ traveler will 
often turn his longing gaze. Nothing 
now remains but a ceremony, which 
properly interpreted, is full of senti- 
ment and beauty. As each takes his 
diploma, let him consider that there- 
with Alma Mater commits to his hands 
her own honor, which she expects him 
to cherish and defend to the last. Ap- 
preciate the fact that she is tenderly 
bending over you as the Spartan 
mother used to do when her son went 
forth to battle. There need be no 
words spoken. You can catch her 
parting message, full of hope, solici- 
tude, and love. Let it inspire you to 
high resolves. Let it abide with you 
like a precious amulet. Act well your 
part, and there will be in store for you 
a reward rather to be desired than the 
applause of the multitude, -the approv- 



ing smile and saintly benediction of 
your kind Mother. 

Beyond the academic field are 
other incentives and rewards. You 
are a fresh relay in the great race to 
advance the standard of progress. The 
eyes of your contemporaries rest upon 
you, while antiquity waves you a 
salute with her withered hand. From 
the dusty tombs of the Orient, which 
I have pointed out, radiate mystic in- 
fluences to inspire you with greater 
zeal and higher purposes. 

In the generous rivalry among the 
nations to make the twentieth century 
illustrious you will be impelled by 
patriotic motives. I predict that you 
will carry the Stars and Stripes in the 
forefront of the grand column, and that 
the people of the earth will hail it not 
only as a national emblem but as the 
advancing symbol of a nfew order of 
civilization. The English drum -beat 
follows the sunrise around the world, 
an inspiring reminder of the majesty 
of empire, the highest type of the old 
aristocratic regime. But the flag that 
you will carry will meet the sunrise, 
every star upon it gleaming like a 
diamond, to flash back to the people of 
the earth a mission of peace, to kindle 
everywhere the fondest hopes for the 
new dispensation, — the common 
brotherhood of man. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



028 344 702 9 



UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN BULLETIN 



NEW seciEs 


Vol. IV. No. 13 


July 15. 1903 


■ Hrsmi AT THB ANII 


AMOa K)«TOr(i|CI A* •■OONO-CLA«t MATTCt 



Reprinted from the Michigan Alumnus 



